Knowing only two words in Russian, "American" and "comrade," he served with the unit for a month, helping liberate the prisoners at the camp from which he escaped.

“At a time when he was absolutely defenseless they took him in, they gave him a weapon, they fed him – he was starving in the prison camp,” the hero’s son and US Ambassador John Beyrle told RT. “This escaped American soldier was their ally. And he realized that being with them he was in safe hands.”

Opening the exhibition at Moscow's Poklonnaya Gora today, John Beyrle emphasized that the exhibit will help remind Russians that they have far more in common with Americans than they sometimes think.

“My father wanted to fight with Soviet soldiers till the end,” John Beyrle said. “He was wounded but still got the chance to go with them all the way to Berlin. The fact that he was determined to do so is very powerful symbolism that I’m proud to remember.”